becomes insensitive and downright insulting. let's have a program for all americans, not just those at the p. ju tha h already succeeded. but those that really believe in this country and just wants the chance to get on their feet and partipate and make a livelihood for their family, like the lady you met today. thanks for watching. i'l sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. breaking away, let's play "hardball." >> good evening, i'm chris matthews in washington. leading off tonight, i want you to watch and listen to the next few minutes here. it may be the most important tiamn.u seand hear in this

it's a sharp taste of what's beg used to defeat president obama. newt gingrich. what if obama is so outside our comprehension that only if you understand kenyon antiolonial behavior can you begin to piece together his actions. d -- >> wou liktoe hish s h ife,au ifca the pulled one of the great cons in the history of politics. >> and -- >> i wish this president would love how to be an american. >> and -- >> no e's ever aedo see birtceificat >> and this tweet, obama sympathizes with attackers in egypt. and then last night -- >> he's not a real president. >> tonight on "hardball" we show you the true ugly campaign being run against the president. even in the face of this ugly attack, there are two big new poll numbers running in his direction.

we give them to you tonight. let's check the hardball scoreboard. according to a "new york times"/cbs/quinnipiac poll, obama leads romney by ten points. down in florida, the president's lead in the poll is nine, 53-44. the president looks to be opening up a big lead now, even in the face of this coordinated tack from the right. with me now are mother jones bure chief and msnbc political contributor david corn and cynthia tucker. i want to talk about the good news for the obama team right now. cynthia, why do you think -- take a minute here -- despe this ugly campaign i've just pointed out in its pattern, its th, tarin try to delegitimize this president, why is he doing well in the toughest states? >> we've talked about what campaign has done wrong. we hav't spent as much time s r. out e gsma a do lf gs right.

for one thing, he's just a stronger candidate. he relates to people better. 's me apoale his favorability rates are higher, while romney has high unfavorability ratings. but obama actually has a set of principles he believes in. so, has mge tt carries out on the campaign trail over and over again. mitt romney doesn't appear to have anything he believes in so he has spent a lot of the campaign flip-flopping. obama makes early moves that are -- ustyo >> -- that are doing well for him. >> i believe you understand they made a smart, strategic move to after the 1% and go after fairness and the whole populous campaign that was pushed and denied and questioned by all the establishment.

obama pued ahead without sa, ths t campaign's about. >> absolutely. you know, there were democratic big wigs saying, don't attack bain. bill clinton h something, you know, not enthusiastic to say abouit. t a --t in eyn thbain message. he knows what he believes. he wouldn't be thrown off course by a little bit of bickering from the peanut gallery. d the adwork. so did the auto bailout, particularly in ohio. that's an early move obama made that republicans criticized, mitt romney was against it. but it is making a huge difference in ohio's comeback. >> let me get a look at the latest poll and bring in david. a new washington post poll has president obamout front in ohio and florida. inside the numbe we e ho the president has hit home with ohio voters on understanding economic problems people are having right now. obama beats romney by 31 on

connecting on their problems. 51 points in florida -- actually, 15. on handling taxes, president obama beats romney by a de margin, 17 points in ohio. in florida it's closer, leads by one. in handling medicare, obama beats romney b1 ohio, 15 in id what i understand, looking at the differential, florida has a lot of retired people, ry sensitive. in a sense, ohio has people who can't afford to get down to florida in the wintertime. their social security, medicare, and maybe if they're lucky, some pension and savings. >> you know, we've talked about this for months now.

afr the 2010 election, obama sat down and thought about what his message is, his vision is, his strategy going into 20 1237 that's what i wrote about in "showdown" and he's stuck to this with such devotion and passion, because he believes in it. there's a real distinction between him and republicans when td t, t are value-driven differences. not just policy differences. you want to do this with the deficit. i want to do that. it's like the reason i want to do this is because i have a different set of values than republicans. >> what are those values? spell them out. >> using govnment as a coalgrvece protect the safety net and to come together and invest in innovation, education, infrastructure. we're in it together. versus the ryan budgetwhich us aa stand-in first puaninwhsa weonal gid of government and give you a voucher, find medicare on your own. here comes romney and he sort of fits the mold. he's a 1 percenter. he shows no empathy, even before the 47%. >> a pure market guy. >> they use bain, from the beginning, as cynthia noted, as a value.

he's out there making money. i'm thinking of wider ames and goals. >> a n bloomberg goathat has president obama leading mitt ey bsix ints natiolly. onbig ason, half of the polls say they have an unfavorable view of mitt romney. bloomberg reports, this is a september high for a presidential challenger in the last three decades. bloomberg quotes a 40-year-old insurance agent from virginia, self-described libertarian on why she's going to vote for obama. now, this isn't cheerleang for obama by any mns but explains romney's problem. if havtoostwth two, i prefer barack obama over mitt. i think mitt romney is so out of touch. it's mostla protest against him and the republican establishment. it's not that i think obama has done such a great job. re's an independenspeaking. romney's hh unfavorable ern intowkwa and cringe-inducing moments in debates and on the campaign trail. let's listen to some. >> rick, i'll tell you what, 10,000 bucks? $10

>> i'm not in the betting business. >> we could raise taxes on people. that's not- >> corporation! orti ♪ o beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains majesty ♪ above the fruited plain >> well, i don't know why he got into the fruited plain there, but de. singing voice, which is not is worse or better than my own, i must say, but heoes say things like instinctily when you let romney be romn, beu 00 bu q, itth table, i've got it in my wallet. this thing about corporations being people. no, they're not. corporations fe people. corporations are bottom line institutions. he'a very rich guy who just oaroprela to the strugg and because he has had this problem for months now, has shown up in the polls, that's what made this 47% remark so absolutely devastating for him. it played into the larger

narrative that mitt romney is some rich guy, who's ver condescending about people, who are not in his fortunate circumstances. onth 4em it's hard to cover them all. but one of them is, here's a guy who's talking about people who don't pay anything in taxes and he refuses to disclose very much about his own taxes. we still don't know what romney was paying in 2005, 2006, how many tax sers has thart ingshe average american relates to. and they don't believe that he has a plan for helping them. hele a -wa you to respond to this ad because this is the kind of ad you run when you're losing. at least losing an argument. look at this. they released this ad, the romney people today. ntthmaon w to be an effort t you just said, cynthia, 47%

disclosure they didn't want to disclose. let's listen. >> president obama and i both care about poor and middle class families. the difference is, my policies will make things better for them. we shouldn't measure compassion by how many people are on welfare. weulmeasure compassion by how many people are able to get off welfare and get a good paying job. >> who measures compassion by how many people are on welfare? who is the story man they're trying to argue with? >> they arerying to make a caricature out of president obama calling him the food stamp president. this reminds me of the story where the woman comes home, finds her husband in bed with his best friend and he says, honey, it's not as bad as it

looks. you have the7 -- >> is that a joke or true life story? >> i'm sure it's happened once or twice. you have the 47% remark with romney speaking and other people have said it, not just me, with complete conviction and passion, telling people what he really thinks. and then you have this guy sitting in front of a camera, reading a script. you have task,kay, do they expect people to buy this now? this is -- >> politically, i have an elephant's memory for politics. fortately or not, it's made my career. in 1960 this is exactly what richard nixon sa in his debate with jack kennedy. i share jack kennedy's mission we have the same goals. people at home are cringing, why am i giving him money, why am i voting for a guy who has the

same goals as anotr guy. cynthia, you will probably not remember the nixon/kennedy debates, but you don't say the other guy is a good, compassionate guy and he cares about people. i do, too! that's what he's saying. i'm just like him. if you believe he's compassionate, i am too! he's selling obama >> you say that if you don't have anything else to say, chris. another thing the bloomberg poll shows is that voters -- more voters believe that barack oma has a concrete plan for helping the middle class than believe that mitt romney has such a plan. that's another problem mitt hxpd tconomy would win the election for him. all he would have to do is go to people and say, i'm not barack obama. i can do a better job. in fact, he needed to do a lot more. obama has laid out specific proposals. he's had a job foronths now, buttomnehas been very vague about his proposals for helping the middle class. >> you know what, this strikes me, just thinking now, listening nnthamn th, he seems to are been

last six months as someone who expected the voters would want him. not that he would have to sell himself, his plan, hisdeas. ateghomin rescuing the company, that is, the u.s. economy. and he didn't have to do much beyond that. as he's finding out, that's not the way the game plays if you want to be leader of the united states. >> there are chinks in his armor, by thway. he didn't count on the knight from arkansas showing up either, bill cnton. >> sir lancelot. >> sir lancelot shed up in the fiel and he's not the guy to jouinth thank you, to complete the last reference to that metaphor. coming up, more right wing vitriol. newt gingrich said president obama isn't a real president, he said that last night, he says he's a false president. when will this rig wing effort stop to stop the legitimacy of issi? l a t reltless campaign. also, the lead president

obama enjoys in the polls may be helping democrats on otherob niwetao se senate. candidate whose fortunes are on the rise, wisconsin's tammy baldwin. mitt romney isn't succeeding as a solo act so the romney campaign is putting mitt romney and paul ryan on the campaign trail together,t karaoke duet, i guess. what does it tell you the big draw on the republican ticket is the number two guy? let me finish tonight with how the democratic party has a huge opportunity to grow after this election. this is "hardball," the place for politics. business pro. governor of getting it done. you kn how to dance... tdeadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it , bune pro.

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now that there's no chance of a republican replacing todd akin in the missouri sate race, claire mccaskill is hitting akin hard for his we'll be right back. fale announcer ] our wells fargo bankers are here to listen, offer guidance and provide you with options tailored to your business. we'veoaned more money to small businesses than any other bank for ten yearrunning. so come talk to us to see how we can help. lsgo together we'll go far.

there's an attempt on the right wing to delegitimatize president obama, an attempt to deare our president not really an american. >> i would like to have him show

his birth certificate. >> i wish this president wou arhow to to be an american. >> no one's asked for my birth certificate. >> this talk and false welfare ads is what president obama faces in the next 41 days. alex wagner host of "now" on msnbc and eugene robinson is a pulitzer prize winning columnist for "the washington post." thanks for joining us tonight. you , justdehy there so little note of what's clearly a pattern in this campaign? on one side this constant reaching the president is not an american. never stops. deis aempt to suppress other the minority vote. it's clearly an attempt to win an election in as ugly as possible way and no one seems to talk about it.

>> well, it's shameful. i think at there - se de t heefa robust discussion about the voter fraud stuff. the democrats and, you know, progressives have managed to beat back republican efforts to disenfranchise thousands if not millions of voters. but the president is not american, under the spell of muslim, and the fifth highest cumentary of all time which orhesi t anti-amecan, kenyan revolutionary in the vein of his father, barack obama sr. this is something the republican party has been furthering since barack obama was a candidate with the jeremiah wright stuff. it's doubling down on incredibly dive racialized brand of politics that doesn't serve the publicans well this election cycle but really does not serve them well in the long term. this party, i don't sewhat the rethpuanty is if these are the spokes people, the newt gingrich, the

donald trumps of the world. >> you know, gene, it didn't start here, of course. the was an attempt, nixon at enin ' t red scare was used obviously. they weren't one of us. bill clinton was accused of sneaking off to russia, remember that, back wn he ran. he was some sort of red. mike dukakis was a guy that wodn't pledge allegiance to thittas, sehow -cinmbf aclu. all this dark, kind of referencing. they're not really one of us. but then with the ethnic factor, because he has the african name and he's black, the doubling down on this, well, he's not one of us. >> right. racedds hio arnty'sier it's a huge factor in this. but what i think is interesting is that this seems to resonate with the hate obama crowd but doesn't seem to be resonating a lot with other folks. and -- >> it already ha

but why are -- you cover politics. why do they keep putting out this stuff? why is newt out there the other night, he's the craziest -- not the craziest, e meanest. to use a kid's words, but he is, saying he's not american. watch dog, attack dog saying, can't he learn how to be an american? they don't say that about walter mondale, didn't say that about each other. they said that about bob dole. >> they don't say it in this they're throwing this against the wall and hoping it will stick. again, it seems to charge up t people who have already made up their minds, made up their minds years ago. >> here are the smart guys in -- i guess, boston. mitt romney has been running red meat ads on medicare. this is false adds. this is when he says it's feeding his base, obama. >> here he is in 1996 president clinton and a bipartisan congress helped end welfare as

we know it, by requiring work for welfare. on jul12thresident obama lfre bop wced plan to gut requirements. under obama's plan you wouldn't are to work or train for a job. they just send you your welfare check. and welfare to work goes back to being plain old welfare. mitt romney will restore the work requirement because it works. >> so all white people. it's fe. that normally wouldn't be the t g heldt whhaad actually ran and hit the air waves romney defended it to "usa today's" susan page and in the interview romney said, quote, romney defends the welfare ads as accurate, accusing obama of offering state waivers as a political calculation designed to, ote,hop ba which is code for african-american democrats. so, there you have an ad with all whites in it. romney comes out himself and says, this is so he can feed his base by sayi, we'll get rid of those work requirements for people on welfare. can you obama giving a big speech to the guys in the inner city, guess what, ladies and gentlemen, i'm getting rid of

the work requirement. yea! it's a totally ridiculous, demeaning idea, demeaning to both recipients of welfare who have to ta it and a president acsed u i sd and trying to get votes with it. it's so demeaning. >> it's an update of the ronald reagan welfare mean, same racialized politics mitt romney has been playing for the last eight, tenonth this is the -- theelfare irt, ith president is abolishing it, he is taking a gop prescription for reforming welfare and putting it in place, which is giving more power to the states. you know, the details of that, the fact that tons of things the president has embred are actually rooted in cservative idlogyas bn a mply osad by the republican party. i mean, they -- mitt romney has to win 60% of white voters and will stop at nothing to shore up every white vote he can. and that includes playing to the lowest card in the deck, which

is increbly racially charged, nd rrisi t stoke hatred and fulmen, i guess, enthusiasm to get folks out to the polls. >> gene, look at this. every time i see this, i see it infrequently, i cry. i've been acsed of being too emotional about politics. four years ago, john mccain ood tsuteo ca tser obama an arab. here's his instantaneous, instinctive reaction. take a look. >> i have read about him and he's not -- he's a -- he's an ar. he's not -- >> no, ma'am. >> no? >> no, ma'am, no, ma'am. he's a decent, family man, citizen that i just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. that's what this campaign is all ab ea that's called honor. it's called honor. we're not seeing a lot of that.

we're not seeing any of that. >> i haven't seen that on either side in this campaign. >> john mccain is a genuine guy. disagree with him, agree with him, whatever, it's called the reblic par useto believe in that. >> put it more crudely, there's some crap i won't eat. i'm not going to go along with what i see as is an ethnic campaign, that shouldn't be part ofhis campaign. i'm not going to go along with what you said. that instinctive no, no, ith grstricasp. i'm not going to do that. >> imagine mitt romney doing that. >> i would like to see every politician do that once in their life. thank you for coming o alex wagner. you were great. thank you, gene. we'll be right back. make an emergency landing. [ male announc ] how do you make america's favorite recipes?

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if. to present aold idea. >> when you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go exactly. there's no place -- you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft because the windows don't open. i don't know why they don't do that. >>t as kennedy challenged a man to go to the moon, not because its,ut because it is impossibl >> back to "hardball." once again, mitt romney, if you heard them there, proves to be one of the only people on earth, earthlings, who says aircraft when he's talking about a plane he's been on. with todayepublican ba te 1951 scii "the day

the earth stood still" when an alien touches down on earth. here's a rresher. >> i came here to give you these facts, but if you threaten to extend yr violence, is earth of yours will be reduced to a burned out cinder. >> i don't know about you, but i can't help but see mitt romney e. s ak sho from that movie. there's klaatu played by michael rennie and he looks like a candidate with a 1950's sci-fi dobble-gainer. back to earth. francois hollande weighed in on the u.s. presidential race yesterday and almost chooses a candidate to endorse. here's what he said to reporters at the u.n. yesterday when asked if he knew about mitt romney's

attacks on socialism. quote, yes, that's why i'll carefunot to say anything at all on this subject because as ppd ofse nif aocst candidates, that would cost him dear. so i suppose i should endorse mitt romney but i won't. finally talking to extremes, how miotlina gooron ramp up extra publicity for an event to help support military families? we'll call it a high-profile arrival. let's take a look. that's not on my bucket list. skydiving. eutenant governor teamed up with a.s. army parachute team to skydive at 120 miles per hour. anyway, from an altude of t 00t, rhto miotatpi grounds. she followed the dive with a

speech, encouraging people to support military families across the countr good for her. up next, president obama's uptick in the polls is helping democrats run for office aoss e tr i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way.

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i'mage ins. iranian president ahmadinejad addressed in a rambling speech saying that his nation lives unr a constant threat. embattled todd akin picked up two endorsements,antomnd jide a vcing support for them. there have been 400 newest nile cases. so far, 3500 people have been infected.

147 have died. now we're going to take you right back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." the battle for united states senate comes down to a handful of races acrs thcountry as urtstaon.ns need to net just one of those races is in wisconsin, if they win the present seat but momentum has shifted in recent weeks to democratic candidate, congresswoman tammy baldwin leading her republican challenger, tommthompson, by four points in the latest p poll. cossn wiins us right now. you seem to be doing pretty good wisconsin, a state causing so much noise in the last couple years because of public employees. how does that affect your race, scott walker, ionsn one sipuic employee/unions, how does that affect the

interest voters are having in this year's election? >> well, i think we've seen voters in wisconsin engage more than ever before. we've, as you said, had a lot going on in our state. a lot on the ballot. people are organizedpeople are thinking hard about the future and jobs and the economy. so, i think it's, if anything, going actually increa ver rnout and participation. we're always a high participation state, but i think we're going to see it grow. >> you know, i was at the democrat convention down in tw a was taken by -- r the sure, there were a lot of good speeches but the one that seemed to move people, didn't have any rhetoric, it was common sense, it was bill clinton. what effect do you think bill clinton had on talking about

people's challenges and what the president's faced in office? >>e gave an ing speech. and what was really important about it is just matter of factually walking through the allegations that have been raised, coming back with responses. i mean, there's been so much misleading informaon, tes. sally from the right wing he just methically went through it all. i have to say my favorite line from his speech was about balancing budgets. it's based on arithmetic. you may not know this, chris, but i was a math major, a double major in math and government. i get it. we have to make things add up if we're going to get our economy back on track, start creating jobs and attack our deficit. >> let's take a look at this. in t midst of mitt romney's 47% fallout, what people fou omt 5000 s to get in the door, tommy thompson tossed blame on romney for his own sliding poll numbers. the guy running against you is blaming the guy running against obama. let's watch hiin action. therentthis d av it ve election. you know, whether you're a

democrat or republican. if you're stand bearer for the president is not doing well it's going to reflect on the down boll ballot. >> right n, obama leadroey s ps isin what effect do you think -- when you're traveling every day, working 24 hours a day practically campaigning, your head is around meeting pple, remembering names, being nice to people, and trying to think. the other thing going on the whole time, they're trying to think to make their president. nds,o you thin whein people's the in y >> yeah, i have to tell you that when people are focusing on the u.s. senate race they're asking themselves a couple basic questions, whose side are you on? whfing t har working middle c families of wisconsin? they know i'm on their side and that's what i've done. they're also learning a lot about what tommy thompson has been doing for the last decade of his life. he left wisconsin and joined the bush administration.

in h serce tre g thugpa aett deal with the medicare part "d" program. he made it illegal for medicare to bargain with the drug companies in order to get better prices for seniors. and then he did the revolvin door. bb f ming llio of dollars representing those powerful interests that already have too much say in washington. so wisconsin people are saying, whose side are you on? they are figuring out i'm squarely on their side. that's the fight i've always taken. >> good luck out there. u'ovup in the polls, l. maki ippen. tammy baldwin, running for senator in wisconsin. polls are moving. thanks for coming on "hardball." with me now is a man who's very nonpartisan, trying to figure this out, msnbc politic analyst and politics editor chris cirilli. like you, i watch these races all the time and i'm c founded by, to me, so many races like masshuses, cnectut nevada, certainly montana, north dakota, missouri, are all to me within the margin of error.

they all look close. >> yeah, it's kind of interestin chris, cause i needm this.esswoman baldwin has as you've seen over the last 2 1/2, 3 weeks, move nationally at the presidential level and in swing states to president obama, you've seen down ballot, tim kaine in virginia, tammy baldwin in wisconsin move as well. wh ies, ou mentioned, connecticut, to be honest, i did not think -- i'm from connecticut. linda mcmahon is republican nominee, she ran in 2010 and st in a very gd republican . s rk close at the moment to the congressman chris murphy, which you wouldn't think, given the lt couple of weeks. i mean, broadly senate candidates have benefitted but the are exception. >> is that women saying it's thshn cumehave wom in

i tmi people asid to some of our producers today, even in years where one party wins the presidency, there are people that come out of nowhere and win in the other direction. joe biden won that senate seat at the age of 29 and hasn't lost since in the governor year so there will be people that go the other way. >> i would say honestly, chris, ani to sttin about this, but i think the best thing linda mcmahon has going for her is she can continue to write as many checks she likes. she's very, very wealthy. she spent $50 million in the 2010 campaign and she's running nsguatotl known. >> she's bigger. >> yeah, she's a big figure and, look, she's spending tens of millions of llars on tv. it fasnati outlier. you think everything shifted towards democrats and i would say broadly -- >> is she pro-choice or pro-life, where is she on the abortion rights? >> did not talk about it, i believe >> wow.

>> she focuses exclusively as a businesswoman. she shouldn't talk about it in conneccubecause she won't n on that issu >> by the way, massachusetts is looking murky as ever with scott brown. same as -- totally murky. thank you very much, the pro arnd here. up next, paul ryan revs up republicans. mitt ry, not so much. o?at's goingn beeen ese eye ng r b i'm not sure this thing is working. we'll be back to figure out if ryan is on top or romney in this fight. ♪ empur-pedic moves. [ malannouncer ] why not talk to someone who owns an adjustable version of the most highly recommended bed in america? ask me about my tempur advanced ergo. gup gop. skwht'ik g as atime you nt. ask me about my tempur advanced ergo. goes down. goes down. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic brand owners are more satisfied than owners of any tradition mattress brand. ergonomics. [ male announcer ] tempur-pedic. the most highly recommended bed in america. [ female announer for more inrmation or fvt mpurpedic.m.

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>> we're back. conservatives were thrilled when ryoo tdvice and picked u.s. congressman paul ryan as his running mate. which the campaign came under criticism, they begged him to unleash the young conservative star, ryan. today comes news of romney/ryan infusion. time together on the trail in the coming weeks will this double act, duo, enerzehe campaig michael sheerer writes for "time" magazine. michael, you first. i was impressed when he picd guy thawe ts picked a conservative with a real agenda, a real word on the budget, tricky stuff like medicare changes and then he had his good speech. they both had good speeches together. and thene seemed to have a one-might stand with the guy and split. now he'sack saying we're dating again, we'ring to show utogeer. rbeatk t

ficameogether, t w from the campaign, the pss was bold. >> it was bold. >> it was a bold pick. the idea was, you bring ryan in and he -- you make mitt romney, who's never been conservative, golden boy into aovemt er iog lr. the issue of medicare, which is a very delicate dance for them, especially in states like florida. i think what they've seen the last few weeks is the story is now about mitt mney personally, and by bringing ryan back in, they turn it back, they're hoping, into story about the ideas, about t contra, t thic the inrward. >> well, john nichols, if you go back into ryan territory now, you do risk what's there, waiting for you. a friend of me or a family member who's a doctor tol me, this is a real problem, medicare, messing around with people's insurance, whichor most people is care is dangerous territory for any candidate for president. >> i think it is incredibly dangerous, and i would remind

folks that paul ryan was given a task over these last few weeks, io.that was to secure the state heentoow pely campaigned there a lot at the state fair and events around, and even in smaller cities. and at the end of the process, we get polling that shows romney/ryan to be down eight, nine points in iowa. so the notion that paul rn brings magic to this ticket i thisegngofade. >> i don't think he believes he's magic, because he's running for re-election in the united states congress, even though he's running for vice president. he's already got his plan "b" in effect. anyway, if you've heard ryan, the ad he had ruing, you would think it was theomne ai is a running in wisconsin for his own congressional campaign in case he doesn't make it to pennsylvania avenue or to the vice president's house. let's take a look. >> can america afford the path we're on? >> our country has a critical decision to make. will we leave something better or worse for our children? politicians fromhti haadmp promises which

will soon become broken promises if we fail to act now. we must take action to prevent the mostredictable economic crisis in our country's history. washington promotes a culture o dependency. we need a culturef accountabilitynd pnal spbi. >> so, if governor romney gives a concession speech, which is always the best part of election night coverage, i hope we get to cover them all, because it's true when this happens, somebody lost, somebody won, he will now say, sorry, governor, i've g to go over to mictoee atgronamn headquarters. it's going to be so weird. >> i think to be fair, i think joe biden ran ads in delaware in 2008. >> did he? >> i think he did. so you can do this. but you're absolutely right, and -- >> let me do the math on that. 72. go ahead. >> ryaisti - >> n-- >> -- up to be -- >> he was up, mike? >> i think he was. >> and ryan is setting himself up here to be whate always wanted to be, win or lose.

so the election doesn't determine ryan's fa. if romney loses, there going toe a hughof puican party saying, it was just that guy's fault. >> whose fault? >> mitt romney's fault. >> that's what i think. john, you write for "the nation," you're not a right-winger, but don't you have a sense they'll say, that's the ey s h didtav enough ideological weight to win. >> i think you're right about that, but i also think that paul ryan is worried about that issue. and, you know, paul ryan is a very ambitious politic player. 's a nice guy. hard worker, very disciplined. i think much more disciplined than mitt romney. >> he's up at 4the rninanes-u i ow, it's pretty amazing. >> and hundreds of them, man, while listening to "rage against the machine." but he is a disciplined player with a political career track. i think he is worried about siti. on the bottom of b you know, it didn't really go that well for sergeant shriver

after running with mcgovern in '72. so i do think that rn thinks about it. my sense is that he wants to get out there and be more in front onhick whr cates tension, i don't know. there's no question that at one point, mitt romney and paul ryan really liked one another, and really thought they were going to gel. we have not seen that yet. and frankly, they need to do that in october if they're going to bin to turn this campaign arnd. >> is this important to you? do you see thao te each other? look like a duet. >> and i haven't seen anything that shows that they don't personally like each other. they seem to be gettingogether fine on the bus. >> i think they're two different people. there's one person, we all know the terms, conviction politician. that's ryan. nody wld er ct ey coniolian ever. they're not to be confused. anyway, thank you john nichols, and thank you, michael shere. when we return or when i return, let me finish with the democratic party's big opportunity to become a huge political party after that election, after this election. you're watching "hardball," th

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side by side so you get the same coverage, often for less. atnertrd at else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ] tell me about it. why am i not going anywhere? you don't believe ha enough. no. call or click today. [ grunting ] let me finish tonig with is. it seems the democratic part has an oppornity tro a ec. i ow that most of the focus is

the change that's been made in the republican party, how it's moving inexorably from a center right to a faright party. how the mainliners are dying off and the tea partyers are becoming the mare l th'shainhe n denying it. and it's because the republican party is morphing into a right-wing party, that i see an opportunity for the democrats, should they choose to embrace it. there are a lot of people out there, i grew up with them, who would not call themselves liberal, but who are pragmatic for a lot of things that liberals are for. they lik andelnia setycare, and for purposes of long-term care, medicaid. they care about good public schools, and they want the government to do a good job protecting the health of the air they breathe and what they eat. these people believe in the science they studied in school. and they take a live and let ve attitudtoward oer pe ihi un thon't want a big churchy government telling them how to live. so if the democrats are smart, even reasonable, they will make the biggest grab in history for the people that the new right-